Alumnae of a black sorority ask University of Alabama to shut down Old South celebration

Alumnae of a historically black sorority at the University of Alabama have asked the school to shut down an annual fraternity celebration in which white students parade in Confederate Army jackets and hats and display the Confederate flag.

Alumnae of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority were on campus last weekend attending events celebrating the chapter's 35th anniversary when Kappa Alpha fraternity's "Old South" parade paused in front of the sorority house. Members of the fraternity were on parade in Confederate regalia, with young women in period gowns. Confederate flags were displayed as part of the parade, sorority members said.

"We were just shocked," said Joyce Stallworth, a 1988 AKA alumna who now is senior associate dean in UA's College of Education.

Stallworth said she believes the students in the parade were celebrating a "romanticized idea" of the old South, and meant no offense. But they need to learn what the Confederacy represents to black Southerners, and the university has an obligation to maintain a culturally respectful campus, she said.

"I don't believe these young folks were in any way trying to be racist," she said. "But they were being insensitive. I don't think they understood the broader implications of what they were doing."

In a petition sent this week to university President Robert Witt, the sorority alumnae said the week-long Old South festivities are "offensive to alumni, students, faculty, staff and prospective students."

Seventy-one alumnae signed the petition calling on the school to "commit to ending permanently 'Old South Week' and any other such events."

Larry Wiese, national executive director of the Kappa Alpha Order, said in a prepared statement that the national office "is investigating the reported actions of some members of the Alpha Beta Chapter at the University of Alabama this past weekend."

"Such behavior, if true, would violate the code of conduct of our organization, and appropriate disciplinary action will be imposed when our investigation is completed," Wiese said. "On behalf of Kappa Alpha members in Alabama and across the nation, I apologize for any inappropriate behavior."

The statement didn't specify what reported actions the national Kappa Alpha officials would consider inappropriate.

A student who answered the telephone at the Kappa Alpha house at UA referred questions to chapter President Will Vandervoort, who was not immediately available for comment. Efforts to reach university officials also were unsuccessful.

Stallworth said representatives of the alumnae have met with Witt and are planning to meet with other university officials.

Kappa Alpha's Old South celebrations have stirred controversy on other campuses. The fraternity's chapter at Auburn University voluntarily ended its annual parade after Confederate flag-waving white students were confronted by black students in 1992.

The events, which some chapters use to raise money for charitable causes, decades ago included secession ceremonies and white students in blackface. According to a report in the Athens Banner-Herald newspaper in Georgia, members or chapters of the fraternity were suspended at six schools between 1992 and 2001 for offenses including shouting racial slurs and wearing blackface to parties.

Kappa Alpha Order was founded in 1865 at Washington & Lee University, where Robert E. Lee was president after the Civil War.